Happy "Birthday" Riley!

Today we celebrated Riley's birthday. She chose to sing Say, Say my playmate for her song and got to make a special birthday hat! She brought cookies for her special birthday treat, and all the kids enjoyed them. What a fun day :).

Today we talked about feelings! We read a wonderful book, which I would certainly recommend to anyone. It was called The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Ask your child about words like shy, frustrated, jealous, excited, and of course happy, sad and angry.

For one of our art projects we colored self portraits, and I let the kids pick an emotion that they wanted to show. It was fun to see all the surprised, excited, happy and angry faces.

The highlight of the day was making our "All about me" cookies. This was great for the kids to develop fine motor skills and a sense of importance by frosting the cookies themselves, and decorating them however they wanted. We got to see all sorts of artistic displays as the kids used licorice, pretzels, M&M's, gummy worms, and candy oranges to express themselves.

Some thoughts from Miss Penny:

• We've been learning how to hold a pencil the correct way. Help them make a gun with their first finger and thumb.
• We're also working on writing from right to left. It helps if you point to the words as you read a book to your child, so they can see for themselves which direction they flow.
• Make sure you feed your kids a good breakfast before school to fuel their highly absorbant brains! They are learning so much and moving so fast that they need those calories and proteins to keep up.


• If the garage is open when you come, it means I am watching for your kids. As soon as the garage door opens, you can either send them back or walk them back. No need to wait for me!


• Homework books! We've already learned letters A, B and C, as well as number 1. Help your child spend a few minutes every day working on those pages of their books. It is important for them to learn to manipulate a pencil, even if they can't finish everything. Anything is better than nothing :). They also need to know that Mom or Dad or Grandma is interested in what they're learning at school. Note: If your child is completing everything quickly and you think they need a little more challenging work, let me know and I can add a supplement. (Keep in mind that our class has children that are barely 3 to children that will turn five this month, so we have a WIDE range of skill levels).


• Our class is doing so well with cooperative play! I've been really impressed that even the younger kids are great at sharing during choice time.


• I have so much fun with your kid, and always hear something that makes me laugh. Today one child announced she was going to be a mom. Another promptly said she was never getting married. This was followed by an announcment by one child that she was getting married to her dad. After that another announced that she was going to marry Santa Clause. Not to be topped, another child announced she was going to BE Santa Clause.